Details

Release year: 2005

Storyline

A young boy is chosen as the defender of good and must team up with Japan's ancient spirits and creatures of lore to attempt to destroy the forces of evil.

Top credits

Directors

Takashi Miike

Writers

Cast

Ryûnosuke Kamiki — Tadashi Ino
Hiroyuki Miyasako — Sata
Chiaki Kuriyama — Agi
Bunta Sugawara — Shuntaro Ino

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Did you know

• The film contains several direct references and homages to the work of Shigeru Mizuki, the manga artist who is generally credited with bringing the tradition of yokai tales into the modern day via the comic-book medium. The young hero researches yokai by traveling to Mizuki's birthplace of Sakaiminato and visiting the museum dedicated to his work there; the actual museum, and its bronze statues of his most famous characters, including GeGeGe no Kitaro, are shown in the film. Later in the plot, when the yokai Ittan Momen shows reluctance to fight, another scolds it by saying "You're always really brave in those comics with Kitaro!"

• Shigeru Mizuki himself appears briefly in the film as the Demon King.

• The climax of Hiroshi Aramata's novel "Teito Monogatari" (where the character of Yasunori Kato originated from) is set in 1998. Hiroshi Aramata also wrote the novel for "The Great Yokai War" which is set in a contemporary time period, around 2005, and arguably a sequel to "Teito Monogatari".